Analysing.
Parameters not recognized.
Diagnosing.
Sheetal clenched her eyes shut against the pain. Her body was spasmed uncontrollably, her teeth clenched together, and she screamed, but it came out more like a gurgle.
Warning!
No elemental, conceptual, or ethereal shards integrated.
Warning!
You have consumed a warder structural shard.
Please consume shards now to improve your potential.
She felt rough hands on her, a grunt and then someone lifted her off her wheelchair quickly. She felt a short spell of weightlessness and then fell into a chair. And then that annoying voice and words appeared again.
No shards consumed.
Diagnosing
You have chosen not to consume shards now.
You must consume a minimum of 20 shards within 20 days.
Failure will lead to spontaneous internal combustion of body and soul.
Congratulations
You have unlocked warder storage.
Storage capacity 10 slots
Congratulations you have unlocked shard storage.
Shard storage capacity - 5 shards.
Warning!
You are taking damage.
Using stored potentiality to repair damage.
Warning you have taken lethal doses of electrical damage.
Warder structure activated.
Using stored potentiality to repair damage.
Loud cursing slowly brought her back to reality, and she saw Ashoka kicking her sparking wheelchair.
“Wha…” Sheetal croaked.
Warning!
You have consumed a warder shard.
Shard consumption was not authorised by the Silver City Governing Body.
The Silver City Enforcement Department has been notified.
Warning!
You have consumed a warder shard.
A regional Kel has been informed of your status.
Congratulations Aspirant.
You have taken the first step beyond Ascension.
Complete your warder mission and gain recognition to be honoured as a Shiang.
Error.
You haven’t ascended.
Ashoka turned to her and blinked rapidly “Go away, words.”
Sheetal wiped her teary eyes “You can see them too?’
“Yeah and hear them. Why does it sound like a posh British lady?”
“What are they saying now?”
Reevaluating.
Configuring.
Integrating Warder Aspirant Trial with the Ascension Process.
Creating new threads.
Generating possibilities to gather potential.
New Mission.
Survive sentient.
Rewards
To be calculated after survival.
Sheetal looked away from the bottom right side of her vision. There was no better way to put it. The words and short sentences weren’t really, at the side of her vision but at the same time it was. And as she read them, the words faded. But there was no time for her time to contemplate more about them. Ashoka hadn’t responded to her.
She looked up and saw Ashoka tearing a bag off her wheelchair.
“My wheelchair!”
Ashoka turned and growled “No, your sparking death trap chair. Honestly, where did you get these batteries? China?”
Sheetal snapped back “That is a German luxury wheelchair and its batteries are made in the states.”
Ashoka dropped the bag in her lap and squatted in front of her. He looked at her for a moment and then sighed.
“You are okay. For a few minutes there, I thought I was going to be all alone here. In this desert!”
“Minutes? It’s just been seconds. Wait a minute, where are the lights? And what happened to my wheelchair? Why are you just in a vest? And why are you sweaty?” Sheetal rambled out one question after another.
Ashoka leaned back and looked at her eyes for a moment.
Sheetal was getting impatient “What?”
“Your burns. They just flaked off.” Ashoka responded with a hint of wonder in his voice.
“What are you talking about?”
“Okay! Let’s start at the beginning. We came here. I was making an annoying joke. You started shaking and I tried to grab you and got shocked. And then your chair went, Nikola Tesla. And your face was kind of pushed against that bar, so.”
Ashoka grimaced at Sheetal’s horrified look and continued with a smile “But that is all in the past. Basically, I used my hoodie to grab you and threw you into your other one. Lucky break, I kept trying to annoy you with that. But you were out already, so I tried to save whatever I could from your chair. Then you did a glow thing for a moment, woke up, said something and went out again. I think that happened twice and now you are here. You smell of burnt hair and flesh, but you are good.”
“What about my face?” Sheetal touched her skin. It felt tender but not painful.
“It’s a bit red, but overall, it looks…” Ashoka leaned in “Better? Your blackheads are gone.”
“I do not have blackheads.”
“Right sweetheart, you didn’t have blackheads. What do you think I am blind?” Ashoka chuckled sarcastically and continued “But you are right, you no longer have blackheads on the right side of your face. The left side still has blackheads.”
Sheetal shot him a look which was quickly overshadowed by her former wheelchair erupting into flames.
“My wheelchair.” Sheetal repeated her earlier words.
“Yeah, it’s been doing that for the last ten minutes. Catching fire and then sputtering out. Your phone, tablet and laptop also erupted into fire.” Ashoka pointed to the bag in Sheetal’s lap and said “Those are the only things I could save.”
Sheetal opened the bag and closed it with a scowl “There is a spanner, a screwdriver, and a dildo here.”
Sheetal glared at Ashoka “I do not have a dil…”
Ashoka watched as Sheetal reached in to grab the rubbery toy.
Sheetal looked at the wobbly thing with an open mouth.
“Oh. You are holding it. Do you even know where it has been?”
“Ew!”
Ashoka chuckled “Yeah, that was supposed to be a joke. Also, you have no sex toys. Why don’t you have sex toys?”
Sheetal looked at the pink sex toy in her hands and screeched, reflexively flinging it away.
“You…” Sheetal began “You…”
“Hush…” Ashoka held up a finger to his lips “That did not sound right.”
Ashoka moved away from Sheetal and blinked his eyes.
“If this is some elaborate way to deflect the tongue lashing, I am going to give you, it’s not going to work Ashoka. Not this time. I have…”
“Oh, we are so screwed.” Ashoka announced.
Sheetal looked at Ashoka’s stiff posture and turned to the direction he was looking. She could see shapes there, moving in the dark.
“Are those people?”
“Yup.”
“Great, we can ask them for some help.”
“They don’t look like they are here to help.”
“What? Why?”
“Do you know what people gathered together are called? A mob. And that looks like an angry mob, marching towards us.”
“We should talk to them.” Sheetal moved her chair forward.
Ashoka grabbed the handles of her chair and pulled her back “What bit about an angry mob don’t you understand?”
Sheetal turned her wheelchair to face Ashoka “Ashoka, we are government officials. We have a duty to sort this mess out and not let it affect our initiative.”
Ashoka looked at her as if she was crazy “Listen to me Sheetal, you don’t negotiate with a screaming mob. You run in and hide.”
“Ashoka, they are not screaming, shouting, or even saying a word. They are slowly making their way here. You need to calm down.”
Ashoka looked at her with a baffled expression “You are right.”
Sheetal stopped and looked at Ashoka’s bewildered face. She jutted her chin upwards and turned her chair to look at the people.
“Hello! I am Doctor Sheetal Serai. Are you lost?”
Ashoka shuffled beside her and muttered “They are not lost. We are.”
Sheetal rolled her eyes and waved at the people “Excuse me. Do you need help?”
Ashoka stiffened and slid his tonfas out.
Sheetal looked at him and then back at the people “Don’t mind my friend here. He is just a bit scared.
Step by step, the dark silhouettes came into the light of her burning wheelchair and Sheetal gasped. She saw the first man. He was a scared mangled mess. One of his arm had been torn off at the elbow. His eyes were a pale blank white, and dead. His face had been clawed off by something big.
Sheetal eyes looked at him and the people behind him. They were also the same.
“Eeeeh!” Sheetal shrieked.
“Zombies!” Ashoka’s upbeat voice rang out in contrast.
“Why are you so happy?”
“Because a mob is scary. People are scary. Zombies? They are okay. Smelly but okay.”
“What the hell is going on?’
The bottom right of her vision blinked into existence.
Sub-mission.
Eliminate the enthralled.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
Enthralled Eliminated 0/20
Rewards
4 Characters Blocks
First kill bonus - 2 Crecks
Ashoka chuckled and held up his two stick things.
Sheetal’s eyes widened and she quickly said “No. No. No. We should go back to the hospital and let the commandos deal with this.”
“Hey, brainiac. Look around, the hospital is gone. Everything is gone. It’s just you and me.” Ashoka looked away from the shuffling corpses and asked her “Are you with me?”
Sheetal looked at him and at the oncoming horde. She wet her lips and took out her wrench.
The bottom right of her screen blinked again.
Do you want to collab with Warder Aspirant
Unnamed
“What?”
“Just say yes.”
“Yes?” Sheetal answered tentatively and the words disappeared.
Warder collaboration created.
Warder unnamed you are collaborating with Warder unnamed.
Ashoka bounced on his toes with a grin “Good! I will keep them off you for the most part. Those who fall near you, smash them with that metal tool. Okay?”
“What if I can’t reach them? What if they get up after you have hit them with your sticks. What if we can’t kill them before they bite us?” Sheetal was panicking
“Hey. Relax!” Ashoka turned to Sheetal “Listen to me. Once again you are thinking of stereotypical Hollywood movie stuff. You don’t need to shoot them in the head. You just need to mash up their brain. All brain’s rest on cranial fluid. That means you just have to hit them hard enough to hit the skull wall and cause damage. It’s simple anatomy.”
Sheetal looked at Ashoka with an open mouth “What? Why do you know that?”
Ashoka grinned and moved ahead of her “Because I am awesome. Here, let me teach you how to be awesome.”
Ashoka moved. Two seconds later he was there before the puff of sand from his initial movement had settled. He duked left and shuffled right and brought on his metal rods on the head of an enthralled and spun the second one at another.
He jumped back and was next to Sheetal within two heart beats.
“See… Easy.”
Sheetal shivered. It felt nice and unnatural at the same time. Like someone had delicately massaged her insides
“What was that?” She asked.
“I don’t know but it felt good.”
Sheetal looked at Ashoka “Hit them with your sticks again. Let me figure this out.”
Ashoka turned a glare at her and lifted his weapons up “These are tonfas. Not sticks. Not night sticks.”
Sheetal gave him a blank look.
Ashoka stomped to an oncoming enthralled and straight kicked him in the head. The creature fell lifelessly to the floor.
“They are…”
Ashoka shifted slightly and punched the shortened end of his sticks into another one’s head.
“An ancient Japanese weapon.”
Thump!
Another of the enthralled went down.
“Created in Okinawa and…”
Thwack!
“Used by Thai’s, Chinese, and Malay.”
Thump. Thump. Thump.
“Tonfas!”
Sheetal looked at her mad partner manhandling the zombie things with her mouth open. After the third one went down Sheetal realised that Ashoka had everything under control and looked sideways until the notifications on the sides popped open.
Eliminated.
Enthralled
Potentiality + 10
Eliminated.
Enthralled
Potentiality + 10
Eliminated.
Enthralled
Potentiality + 10
Sheetal looked up from the notification and stated “Hey, Ashoka, I think every time you kill one of the zombies we get something called potentiality. I think its that thing which makes us feel good.”
Ashoka kicked one of the zombies away making others stumble and turned to Sheetal “Are you saying that this thing inside our heads likes it when we kill things?”
Sheetal looked at him appalled.
Ashoka grinned and screamed “I love this place.”
Sheetal's look turned aghast.
Ashoka watched her for a second and then at a dead thing stumbling towards him. He bucked to the right, grabbed the female zombie by the hair and in a smooth motion flung it towards Sheetal.
“Here you handle this one.”
Sheetal screeched “What!?”
She saw the dead creatures heading towards her. She saw it open its mouth hungrily to bite. She saw it trip on its feet. Sheetal closed her eyes as it fell to its knees right in front of her. Instinctively she tightened her grip on the wrench in her hand and brought it down upon the dead woman’s hideous face.
Thump.
Sheetal heard a crunch and felt the zombie fall in the loose sand of the desert.
“Huh? That didn’t go according to plan.” Ashoka’s disappointed voice brought her out of her fear.
Sheetal opened her eyes and glared daggers at Ashoka “I am going to kill you.”
“Hey, be happy. You killed one. And it felt good.”
Sheetal started to respond but Ashoka whooped and started battling more enthralled. He started announcing his moves.
“I will kick you in the head.”
Thwack.
“I will bump you in the face.”
Thump.
“I will bang you in the temple.”
Thunk.
Sheetal closed her eyes and tuned him out. She needed to gather herself. There was a lot to unpack here and arguing with Ashoka was not going to help. She needed to sort this stuff out before others came here, where even here was. And why hadn’t they arrived. At least two of the soldiers should have arrived by now. Had they aborted the experiment after they had consumed the motes.
No, she couldn’t think of that right now.
What did she have? A wrench, a screwdriver, a bag with her deodorant, and a lighter.
No, that wasn’t what she needed to check. It was the bit with this potentiality. As she thought about it, text in her vision appeared and disappeared. The glowing ball of colours pulsed and expanded to show her two bars.
Warder Unnamed.
Potentiality 645/ 2500
Warder Unnamed.
Potentiality 2255/2500
She somehow knew the first bar belonged to her. But why was it so low?
“Hey, why don’t I have potentiality?”
Ash didn’t respond for a moment and then shrugged “Maybe its because you almost died?”
“What do you mean I almost died?”
In response, Ashoka kicked another one of the enthralled towards her “Fight now. Talk later.”
Sheetal gritted her, moved forward and hurled her spanner wrench right to left. She made contact with the dead thing’s cheek bone. It didn’t go down. She looked at it and its broken face. Sheetal yelped and hit it again. And again. It finally crumpled and this time stayed dead.
“Nice.” Ashoka nodded.
Sheetal looked up at Ashoka who gave her a curt nod. Sheetal looked at her wrench and decided to go back to reading the text in front of her. She mentally scrolled backwards. Things that immediately stood out to her were Warder Shard, Ascension, and the other shards. The rest were damage notifications with regeneration notification.
Sheetal stopped. What was this?
She looked at the orb floating on top right. It expanded and stated…
Warder Aspirant
Unnamed
Underneath that was a scaled down version of her standing upright. Like she had been able to stand when she was seven. She stopped that train of thought too.
She looked besides her model. There were three options there. Shard Integrity, Warder Structure, and Potentiality Assignment.
Her eyes hovered over Shard Integrity. Text in red appeared right below it.
No shards found.
She moved on to the Warder Structure. Three options opened up below the main text.
Linear.
Constellation.
Ribboned.
The linear one showed nine glowing orbs inside her silhouette like model. It resembled a chakra map inside an ayurvedic clinic with other points next to the main spots.
The constellation option resembled a galaxy with multiple glowing spots rotating around each other. With one main spot being the darkest shade of black compared to everything else.
Ribboned had tens of orbs ribboned across her model's limbs, torso and head in a mesmerising pattern where the ribbon never overlapped. Sheetal looked at and followed them ribbon for a moment and then looked at the silhouette. It looked like someone had wrapped her like an Egyptian mummy. Sheetal did not even like that idea a bit. She moved past ribboned immediately.
She looked at all three and picked the constellation option. And error message popped open once again.
Error.
No shards found.
Sheetal went to the last tab. Potentiality assignment. That did nothing too. She could see occasional streams but it all went into the Warder Structure. She tried to get something more out of the tab but was soon taken out of her investigation.
“Hey! Hey!” Ashoka’s panting voice made her look up.
He had moved away from her. He was now ten steps away and back pedalling while jabbing out of the reach of the last five enthralled.
“A little help here?”
Sheetal blinked. The enthralled had somehow started working together. They were all attacking him together. When he tried to attack one, the other would attack him at the same time. And he was getting pushed back towards her.
She needed to do something but…but…
What could she do?
She tried to roll her wheelchair but it was stuck in the desert sand. She looked at the bloody wrench in her hand and at Ashoka scrambling back from an out stretched hand of the dead. What could she do? She had no weapons, she had no legs, all she had was this stupid wrench.
Her vision zoned out until she could see all five enthralled. It was like the time stopped for a second. She suddenly knew that these things would kill Ashoka. He wouldn’t go down quitely but they would win. Then they would tear chunks of him while he screamed in pain and agony and then they would come after her. She would be helpless. They would take their time in killing her and eat her while she was alive. And all her dreams, all her accomplishments, all her sacrifices would amount to nothing because all she had was a wrench.
“A stupid worthless wrench!” Sheetal screamed and threw the tool at the enthralled.
It shot out of her hand with a crack and streaked towards the undead with a line of glowing after image. It impacted the second one to the right, missing Ashoka by a hair and exploded into shrapnel.
“What?” Sheetal squeaked.
“The fling?” Ashoka finished her words.
Warder structure activated.
You have used pure potentiality to imbue an attack.
Disruptive Resonance.
Potentiality 350/2500
Warning!
Potentiality Low.
Warning
Potentiality is the essence that makes you, you. Lowering it may result in death.Please procure more potentiality or wait for it to regenerate.
Sheetal stopped with her hand raised.
Ashoka stomped on the downed enthralled’s head next to him and turned to look at her.
“What was that?”
“I don’t know. I just threw a wrench and that happened. And then…”
“I am not talking about you throwing something. I am talking about you almost hitting me with it.”
“I…Uh… Well I didn’t mean to do that.”
“You can’t aim. Can you?”
Sheetal closed her mouth with a pop and then muttered “I have never tried. Or had to.”
Ashoka watched the last three injured enthralled stumbling to their feet and shook his head.
“Okay, let’s make a deal. I will stop annoying you and you will stop throwing things. Deal?”
Sheetal eyes zoned in and out of focus as she thought about the last message. She didn’t need to recall the message to understand its meaning. She also felt it. She felt tired and hollow. More than she had felt just before she threw the flipping tool. She slumped in her chair and just took deep breaths. Slowly she started to feel better. A few seconds later Ashoka was there, propping her up before she could fall out of her chair. Then her body hummed again and she felt much better.
Congratulation
Submission Cleared.
You have received…
1000 Potentiality.
1 Creck
4 Character Blocks
Sheetal looked at Ashoka’s hand holding her and muttered “Thanks. What the… What was that?”
“Um… Your not hammer thing, going boom? Well I don’t know, but I think it did this to you.”
“It was a wrench.” Sheetal corrected Ashoka
“Okay. But it did not return to you. If you are going to use tools to fight they should at least return to you.”
“What!?”
“Yeah. Otherwise what kind of superhero are you going to make?”
“I am not a superhero.”
“You just threw a claw thing at zombies and blew them up. Boom.”
“You know I didn’t mean to do that.” She said tiredly.
“Okay, but I mean we are fighting zombies and I fought fifteen of them. Alone. So I am a superhero and so are you.”
“Oh for god’s sake. Are you trying to convince me that I am a superhero so that you can say you are one too?”
“Yes.”
Sheetal chuckled “You are mad.” and then she began to laugh until her eyes began tearing up.
Ashoka looked at her with worry in his eyes. He had been omitting a lot from his story. Okay, he was lying. But that was only because he did not want her to freak out like she was doing now.
Honestly, how was the truth going to help? Truth like the fact that they had been here for more than an hour. How she had almost died twice now. Once when her stupid chair blew a circuit and the second time when her electronics exploded.
That was why he was keeping her off balance to stop her from thinking about stuff.
To add to that, he had started seeing things. Things like wavy patterns in the air, only these were made out of colours. Colours that had attracted his attention to the enthralled. Which had all worked out. But behind the red enthralled were two purple glowing outlined that had kept moving rapidly towards them. One of them had done something that had somehow made the last five enthralled to attack him together. That wasn’t good.
That left him with a problem. Should he roll the dice or not?
Sheetal calmed down and wiped her teary eyes. She looked at him “What is it?”
Ashoka raised an eyebrow and with a pant in his voice asked “Are you okay?”
“No. But I think I will be.”
Ashoka grinned “Good. Now let me go and deal with our downed enemies.”
They both heard sand shift and with wide eyes Sheetal asked “They aren’t dead?”
“No. But you did blow them to bits. Literally. I think I saw an arm flying away into the distance. Now look away. I am going to go and stomp their heads in.”
Sheetal grimaced and swallowed.
Ashoka rolled his eyes dramatically “That didn’t gross you out? I was sure that was going to make you puke. Remember the time when I was waxing my pubes? You screamed and shouted, and called me names for days.”
“That was gross.” Sheetal nodded.
“They weren’t even long.”
“Oh, does that make a difference?”
“They weren’t even smelly like the zombies I have been throwing at you.”
“Wait a minute. Have you been throwing the zombies at me to gross me out?”
Ashoka put his hands on his knees and answered “Yeah. How else am I supposed to find out what grosses you out more than hair?”
Sheetal glared at him.
“Fine. I’ll go stomp some skulls. You sit here and sulk.”
“I am not sulking, I am reading the notifications.” Sheetal stopped “Wait, you don’t see them?”
“Oh the words and the ball? Yeah, I switched them off when we came here. You can hit the ball to switch them off, you know.” Ashoka said offhandedly and the expected reaction came instantly.
“What!? How? When? How did you even figure that out before me?”
“I am awesome.”
Sheetal growled and her eyes glazed over.
Ashoka turned around and almost let out a sigh when he heard Sheetal start cursing him
“He is awesome?” Sheetal hissed and continued “He is awesome? No, he is a stupid brat.” Her mumbling was followed by “Hey, that’s new.”
Ashoka saw the purple outline move in the dark. It whizzed from centre to left and then to the right.
And suddenly it was past him and behind him. It was fast. Too fast. And it was going after Sheetal. He wanted to look back but he controlled himself. He kept a nonchalant expression on his face and added a limp to his gait. He needed whatever was coming at them to underestimate him. He reached the undead. It had a huge chunk blown off its torso. He visibly hopped on one foot and steadied himself before he stomped down.
Behind him she began reading aloud to dampen the sound of crunching bones.
“You are using potentiality to power a structural ability. Using heightened emotions - Empathy, Focus, Strength, and Dexterity. Error. You do not have the dexterity required to aim. Warning, you might hit a friendly.”
Ashoka walked to the next one ignoring the speeding enemy and repeated the process. He saw the spark of something move into him and into Sheetal. He reasoned that that must be the potentiality Sheetal had been talking about.
Sheetal twitched behind him and continued.
“You have used an external object. You have invested potentiality. Congratulations. You have unlocked the ability imbue. You have eliminated 3 enthralled.”
The second purple enemy moved to his left. It was thinking about tackling him.
“The potentiality stored in your soul structure is spent. Please gather potentiality or wait for its regeneration. You will be able to access this ability ‘Imbue’ in 3 hours.”
Ashoka felt more than saw, the purple enemy’s outline turn red. He felt it grin and look at the other no red outline and make its decision after Sheetal’s words.
Ashoka suddenly realised that this thing in his head was not showing him outlines just for the sake of it. It was a friend or foe indicator. And it had classified these two new people as foes.
“I think I used something called an ability.” Sheetal told Ashoka.
Ashoka stomped to the final enthralled. It was already dead but just to be sure he stomped on its head and slumped forwards tiredly.
“Are you okay?” Sheetal asked with concern in her voice.
Ashoka panted audibly and in a hoarse voice replied “Yeah, I am just tired you know. And I need some water.”
Sheetal looked around. All she saw was sand and dead bodies. Most of which had been taken down by Ashoka while she was locked in her own panic. She suddenly felt a pang of guilt.
“Well... Well… Well… What do we have here?” A voice asked from beside her.
“A crippled mortal and a mortal.” Another voice answered. As soon as she turned to the source of the voice she saw a tall woman tackle Ashoka to the ground.
The owner of the voice grabbed Sheetal by the throat and leaned in. It grinned and Sheetal saw shark teeth on blue toned skin.
Her notification bar quickly blinked into existence.
Nishachar (Night Stalker)
Shards Incorporated - 1
Speed.
Sheetal tried to scream. The Nishachar tightened his grip and only a wheeze came out. With panic in her eyes she tried to break the man’s grip.
The creature before her just chuckled.
“You look tasty.”
She gave up and looked around for something and saw Ashoka. He had somehow tied up the woman with his legs and was looking at her with his head cocked to one side.
Ashoka looked up at the scrambling female. She was blue. Not blue because he had her in her triangle choke but quite literally blue skinned. And she had pointu teeth very close to his crotch. That made him shiver so he arched his back and hyper extended her arm. As expected, the woman grabbed her extended arm that gave him a moment to look back at Sheetal. She still hadn’t got it.
He mouthed “Think.”
“So nice of you both to come here. We haven’t tasted fresh mortal flesh in so long.” The Nishachar next to Sheetal looked at her bosom with drool and grinned.
Her bad guy was a talker. That was good. She still had time to get her stuff together. He on the other hand had a crazy woman in a triangle choke who was now trying to chin his grapes. He grimaced as an elbow connected with his thigh.
Ashoka reached and picked up one of his tonfas from the sand. First things first. He needed to protect his awesomeness. Instead of slamming the bottom side on her head, he shoved the handle under her chin and tightened his free arm around the handle. Now she was choking and her teeth were nowhere near his jewels.
He sighed in relief and shot the blue woman a fierce grin.
The woman growled in anger and planted her feet. Ashoka snorted. He knew what she was trying to do. She wanted to pick him up and slam him down. That wasn’t unusual, it was even a great offensive move. He had been on the receiving end of it many times. But all those times the man had been twice his size and muscled up to the gills.
Ashoka’s smile slowly faded and his confidence faltered. He felt a bout of weightlessness as something pushed him off the ground. He glanced down and saw sand press down under him. He looked up and saw the blue faced woman jerk him up with a fierce grin.
His tonfas under her chin loosened enough for her to breath. He saw her take a lung full of air and glare at him.
Ashoka looked at the woman with an open mouth and asked “How?”
In a hissing voice the female nishachar answered “I am the world’s force.”
Ashoka felt something press into him from behind and push him towards the woman..
He snarled back “Yeah? Meet leverage.”
With a sudden shove, Ashoka shoved his body against the invisible barrier and jerked his body sideways. His body moved right and so did the woman’s head with a crunch. He felt a satisfying pop travel through the metal pole of his tonfa.
The woman stiffened and Ashoka tightened his legs and continued his roll. Using the momentum he spun the woman sideways off her feet and slammed her down into the sand head first.
Sheetal felt the hand on her throat slacken. What Ashoka had just done was amazing. She at first thought the woman had the upper hand and then somehow Ashoka had tied her up in his legs. Then, the female nishachar had done something to lift him up on her shoulders. In response Ashoka had twirled and driven the woman head over heels into the sand.
Now she was twitching in her death throes. Shestal felt scared, disgusted, relieved, and awed at the same time. All those emotions had overlapped and she did not know how to process things and had frozen up.
Thankfully a notification on the side of her vision blinked and brought her out of her stupor.
You have killed a Nishachar allied to the Rakshasa Empire
Rewards -
First kill bonus - 1 Creck
1 Character Block
The notification momentarily distracted her but not as distracted as the shark man was. He was stupified by the death of his partner. Even before they had started fighting the man had been looking away from her, discounting her as a cripple. Now he had his eyes locked on Ashoka who had sprung up to his feet.
Thoughts flashed through Sheetal’s brain and a plan formed. She quickly dug around in her bag. And in one of the side pockets she had found exactly what she had been looking for. Her motions made the Nishachar look at her.
Sheetal squeaked as the Nishachar turned around and snarled. He lifted his hand to hit her but this time she was ready. She raised the can.
The man stopped and then looked at the deodorant can with a baffled expression.
Sheetal pressed the nozzle and sprayed the man in his eyes.
He screamed and closed his eyes.
“Seriously!? A deodorant?” Ashoka asked from somewhere in the distance.
Sheetal snarled and used her other hand to flick the metal lighter open.
Sheetal couldn’t hear well with the blood rushing in her ears. She clicked and a jet of fire popped into existence. She brought it to the spray with numb fingers.
Whoosh!
The man brought a hand to bat her can away.
The flame caught and the spray turned into an inferno.
The night stalker screamed. His hand and his face went up in flames.
Sheetal growled and pressed the nozzle harder. She kept pressing it until it would go any lower.
The Nishachar shuffled back and tried to bolt. Sheetal moved forwards until she was on the edge of her chair. He stumbled and fell. Sheetal aimed the stream of fire at his downed body as he tried to roll.
“Oh!” Ashoka walked to her and looked down at the scrambling enemy.
Sheetal ignored him and threw the now stuck open can at the Nishachar.
“Eat this you freak!” Sheetal shouted.
The can suddenly exploded and sprayed the man all over.
The night stalker screamed. He got to one foot and started to get away. But then fell back down midway and just began to claw himself away from her.
“Okay. A deodorant. Not a weapon I would use, but it worked.” Ashoka's calm voice brought her out of her panic.
She looked up. Ashoka was casually walking towards the burning man.
He looked at the man trying to toss dirt everywhere and sighed.
“Damn nerds. Have to make everything complicated. You have a screwdriver. Poke him in the throat with it. No, you want to use a portable flamethrower. You crazy Musk wannabes.”
Sheetal shivered at the thought of stabbing someone.
Ashoka looked at Sheetal and shook his head. With a pitying look, he slammed his tonfa down on the burning head twice.
You have killed a Nishachar allied to the Rakshasa Empire
Rewards -
1 Creck
1 Character Block
“Tough way to go. And they call me cold!” Ashoka gave Sheetal a look.
Sheetal ignored Ashoka. This was insane. Everything was insane. There were zombies. Blue skinned women picking up men without a grunt and cannibalistic men looking at her chest while talking about eating her.
Her eyes began to tear up and then the burning carcass in front of her collapsed into itself.
“Huh, this one turned into Ash too.”
Sheetal looked up at Ashoka with an open mouth.
Ashoka laughed “Yeah, mine did that too. It made a sound like whoop and turned into Ash. The enthralled didn’t do that. They just turned into sand.”
Sheetal looked down and saw a white mote float out the dead nishachars remains. Its serene spinning nature contrasted sharply with everything happening around them again everything Sheetal had just gone through.
“And yeah, that happened to mine too.” Ashoka added in an upbeat voice. He walked to one of the enthralled and kicked it. It fell apart into sand.
Sheetal screamed “Okay! I am done. I am seriously done! What in fudge is going on?”
“Oh, now you decide to freak out. Not when you melted the poor guy’s face?” Ashoka asked.